


The Baker's Weakness

by socolormecurious



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/M, baby!Katniss, baby!Peeta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-06
Updated: 2012-10-06
Packaged: 2017-11-15 17:50:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/530002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/socolormecurious/pseuds/socolormecurious
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s Katniss’s and Peeta’s first day of pre-K.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Baker's Weakness

“Peeta! You do not pull on people’s braids! Tell—” and Abraham Mellark realizes that he doesn't know the girl’s name.

“Katniss,” a woman somewhere behind him offers.

“—tell Katniss that you are sorry.” Bram shakes his finger at his son, just to get the point across.

Peeta seems to have gotten the lesson because he looks down at his shoes and mumbles, “Sorry.” The girl, who had looked mad enough to punch Peeta, grimaces for a second and then nods. Peeta, seizing an opportunity to gain the lady’s good favor, continues. “I just wanted to see what it felt like. It’s like a really soft rope,” he adds, and the girl smiles.

“My mommy did it,” Katniss says, “but someday she says that she’ll teach me how.”

Satisfied that his youngest son is not going to get into any more trouble on his first day of school, Bram stands back up and turns around, looking for his unexpected parenting accomplice  “I’m sorry Peeta was harassing your daughter—” Bram stops, because he knows the woman behind him, even though he hasn’t seen her in ten years. Like her daughter, her hair is in a braid, but unlike Katniss, the woman is blond and fair. Also unlike Katniss, the woman is pregnant. Bram never thought that he’d see that face again. “Gretchen.”

Her smile is warm. “Bram. How are you?” Even now, she’s beautiful, and she sounds as kind as she ever was.

“I’m good. I’m good. And you’re pregnant.” Almost as soon as the words are out, Bram realizes how stupid he sounds. It’s just a shock. Bram hasn’t heard from Gretchen since the day that they broke up, since she told him she was in love with someone else, and suddenly she shows up at his son's daycare?

“Yep, this'll be our second. Another girl.” A daughter. He and Lisa had been trying for a daughter, when they got Peeta instead. Bram loves their son anyway, but he’s not quite sure that Lisa was ever happy about it.

“And you’re back.” There’s an accusation there. Sure, they haven’t spoken in years, but Bram feels like he deserved at least an email from his former fiancée when she moved back into the area.

“Well, after Dad’s heart attack, we decided to move back, to help him out. He’s not been the same since Mom died,” she says quietly, but now Bram isn’t really paying attention. The whole situation is just too weird, and so he focuses his attention back on the kids.

It seems Peeta has the same weakness for the Bowen—Everdeen Bram corrects himself—Everdeen women has Bram does, however, because, somehow, Peeta has managed to get ahold of Katniss’s hand. He’s whispering something in her ear, and she giggles.

Damn. Bram’s four-year-old son has better game than he does.

As if to prove that point, Peeta then does something that no one else expects. He leans in and kisses Katniss directly on the cheek. The girl blushes and drops his hand, and Peeta announces proudly, “Katniss and I are gonna get married.”

The tension between Gretchen and Bram is broken as they both try to hide their laughter. “Is that so, Peet?”

“Yup. Just as soon as we’re old enough.” He nods vigorously. Bram misses having that kind of certainty in life. Or obliviousness, as Peeta seems to be ignoring his fiancée’s reaction to his new pronouncement.

“I think you have to ask her first, son, before you go around saying things like that. But what do you say, Katniss? Do you want to marry Peeta?” Bram is nearly about to fall apart, and Gretchen is being no help. She’s already a ball of silent laughter, covering her face with her hand so her daughter doesn’t notice.

“No way! I’m never getting married!” She stomps over to her mother’s side, and tugs on Gretchen’s free hand. “Come on, Mom, we’re going home.”

Gretchen then has to explain to Katniss that it is the  _beginning_  of the school day, so Bram turns to Peeta, whose lower lip is quivering. He bends down and pulls his youngest close. “Hey, it’s okay, son. Those Everdeen women are just pretty stubborn. But you’ll get her in the end. I promise.”

Peeta nods against his father’s shoulder. “Okay,” he sniffles.

Bram ruffles his hair. “Good boy.” Oh, if only Peeta knew what he was getting into, he thinks, looking back at Gretchen and her daughter. But Bram most definitely does not have the heart to tell him. It’ll have to wait until he’s older.


End file.
